Incredible Cornerstone Kids: September 2016

Friday, September 16, 2016

Life Without Limb[it]s // Liam Malone // Documentary

Our writing as a child living in Africa . . .

Life as a child in Kenya

“Bump!” The road’s stony as we travel to school today in the hot sun. It’s my first time and I’m truly anxious about… well… everything! J I’m glad I don’t have to walk unlike some other children. I’m fortunate to ride in a minivan. I’m squashed between 2 people and 1 in front and behind. When more people come it’s more packed in the van.

“There can’t be any more people!” I gasp in desperation to the driver. “5 I’m afraid.”

The sun is burning in Kenya and there’s still 1 more hour to school. The driver sounds like he doesn’t want to be here but it’s the best job he can get for money. He says that we are all lucky to be at a school. All over Kenya this is the best school yet.

“I’m starving!” I say to myself as I quickly eat the lunch. Its bread, soup and beans. This is my last meal for the day so I enjoy it the most.

I struggle at everything at school but I know that I will catch up. I wasn’t really the only new person that day! J In school we have to do heaps of English! My favourite subject is Geography. I love learning about all the other parts of Africa.

The day soon passes quickly and everything’s fine. I come home and tell everyone what I did this very day.

The teachers are really nice and sometimes they give treats. But hardly. There’s not much money for them.

After school there heaps of jobs to be done. I race back and forth collecting water for the cooking (which I have to do), gardening, washing and just normal water to drink. There’s a big bucket I need to use and it’s heavy.

I wish Father was here. I miss him a lot. Since he passed away life will never be better. I think he is impressed with me. It’s hard to learn at the back of the class. But we have to pay 50 cents extra.

Hopefully, somewhere life is better. But not here. Not now, and not for me.

By Rachel.

Poor African Boy . . .

I wipe sweat from my brow as the sun glares down, burning my head like it could burn right through it. I gradually walk slower and slower and slower. I shake my head and focus on what I was doing - walking to the water well. The hours go by but they feel like days, months, years. Finally I reach the water well. Dying of thirst I drank the unclean water but things like don’t bother me, that’s what I need, that’s what my family needs.

Wiping tears from my face the water buckets made my arm feel like there are 10 bricks in them.

I finally arrive home. Uh, I hate when dad does this. It’s dead Rabbit for dinner which dad stabbed to death with a sharp wooden stick. They’re just innocent animals that could have lived a longer and happier life, but that doesn’t matter when you’re starving, you’re staving. We gobble it up. I cry with guilt in bed that night after eating the rabbit.

Next morning I do my daily routine as I walk on the burning hot sand. We go to the market. Pretty clothes, of course mum would say no. Fun game games for $10 dollars but earning 50c a day mum would tut her finger and say “I DON’T THINK SO BOI.”

By Dom

Just an ordinary day in Africa . . .

I wipe sweat from my brow as I walk what feels like millions of kilometres to my muddy water well. It feels like days, months, centuries. I start to say “man I wish that I could go to school”. I sigh and kept walking, there’s no chance of that ever happening. I see the kids in their school uniforms and start getting jealous.

Once I get home I march angrily into my room and start crying. Why? Well one thing my dad died from aids and also I can’t go to school.

I then hear a foot boot a ball. Making sure no one’s in the room I jump out the window and start playing football with my plastic bag ball and my friends. The next few hours were a blur… until my mum found out that I had gone outside.

While mum was sleeping I crept outside and ran, then sprinted. About 3 hours away from my house I heard a lion pattering near me. I heard them so I climbed up the nearest tree and hid between the leaves of the tree. The lions started looking I was nearly dead because I was shuddering. Suddenly they must have heard me breathing because they started shaking my hiding place. I was scared to death. Then to my relief I heard a stampede of wildebeest cantering across the hard clay desert ground. I sighed with relief oh why, oh why had I gone outside?

While the lions were distracted with a leopard I had just enough time to jump down from my hiding place and sprint to the sound of the stampede. I jump, lift off! I grab a horn of the wildebeest. Once the stampede of wildebeest cantered past my house I bounce through the window and clambered into bed. With relief I fell asleep in less than a second.

By Caleb Yates